INFLATING OUR WAY OUT OF DEBT

President Obama and his financial experts and to a lesser extent the other major economies of the world are playing a very dangerous game trying to spend their way out of a very deep recession. 

While the stimulus package and it's spending on massive infrastructure projects in an attempt to get people to work is admirable and even desirable as it should get projects done at a more favorable cost, it is still spending money we don‘t have. 

The timing will have to be spot on to stop the spending before inflation gets out of control to the point it will be irreversible. With the printing presses going round the clock printing the trillions of dollars required for this massive worldwide spending spree it can do nothing more than cause massive inflation. I suppose that repaying all the accumulated debt with relatively worthless inflated dollars is one way to solve the deficit problem.

Purposely attempting to try and inflate our way out of deficit is courting disaster to the point of irresponsibility. I hope it works but creating such inflation will put so much future pressure on all of us it could easily backfire and end in disaster.

Once inflation starts to rise, the debt holders will start to demand higher interest rates thereby driving inflation even higher. As inflation spirals ever higher and faster some countries will manage to eliminate their debt and others will just continue to borrow at ever higher costs. We will end up with more countries like Zimbabwe who are attempting to deal with 150,000 % inflation.

When the US dropped the gold standard and had nothing to back it’s currency it became an open invitation to print money and it has been doing so at a breakneck pace. So far the American economy, still being the largest in the world has managed to keep it’s dollar as the currency of choice in hard times. Some countries have even used it to back their own currencies and others, such as Zimbabwe, use it as default currency to keep their economy functioning while they try to rebuild their failed economies.

The US public debt of 10.8 Trillion dollars and growing, costs 250 billion dollars per year in interest. As interest rates rise which they surely will, this cost will rise as well. As the US keeps piling on more debt year after year it will at some point  become unsustainable. This is the ultimate danger of not having anything to back the currency, be it gold, oil, rice or whatever.

This leads us to the question of what to do to protect ourselves through this coming inflationary period. Unfortunately there is no textbook answer because Governments have a habit of manipulating values of assets and confiscating properties. Protecting what we have becomes a major study of it’s own and not one that can be quickly covered in one post.

SECURITY COSTS FOR THE OLYMPICS, A NEW BRIDGE?

Talk about creative financing!! 

Wow! The federal government is giving us a good deal on the security costs for the Olympic games. We only have to pay another $165,000,000.  But don’t worry we’ll call it infrastructure spending, that way the true cost of the games will still be on budget and no one will be the wiser.

I was under the, obviously wrong, impression that the Provincial / Federal infrastructure spending was part of the stimulus package to create jobs in B.C.

Now I have been watching the development of the Olympic story since it was announced and soon realized that there would be massive cost overruns in all aspects of the games. It would be amusing, even comical if it weren’t for the fact that it will be us the taxpayers and our children and grandchildren who will being paying for it.

This most recent announcement is I suppose somewhat refreshing in that it is not even attempting to hide the fact that policing the games is not a bridge, even if that is what they call it in their paperwork. In the past the government insisted that Olympic costs were just normal infrastructure spending. I still don’t understand why we can’t call it Policing costs but have to call it a bridge, and where does it go and who’s name do we put on it? Maybe the Gordon Campbell invisible bridge to nowhere? 

Your tax dollars at work. Zero jobs created, on time and on budget total cost $165,000,000.00

Trivia - Until the nineteenth century, solid blocks of tea were used as money in Siberia!

COST OVERRUNS AT OLYMPIC VILLAGE

And now Vancouver city will have to slash the social housing component of the Olympic Village. This is not what was promised when the Olympic proposals were put forward, it is however an economic reality.

Why they ever agreed to give subsidized housing to people in the most desirable and expensive jurisdiction in Canada is beyond me. 99% of us in B.C. cannot afford to live there but those people who are down on their luck get to live there at our expense. Go figure. 

If we are going the social housing route at least build it in a little bit less costly area. I fail to understand why those of us who have worked and slaved to buy a home had to make sure we did so in a place we could afford, not in the most expensive waterfront in the Country.

The cost of these social housing units is well in excess of $500,000. Per unit. Why not build them somewhere where they can be built for $100,000. Or less.

Our grandchildren are going to still be paying for this fiasco long after it has outlived it’s usefulness and fallen down.

Unfortunately this is just one of the many costs that we are going to be paying for for years to come involving the 2010 games.The powers that be are required to put the most positive spin that their high priced spin doctors can come up with on the whole thing.

Some of us feel the games are worth it at any price and some not so much. I find myself in the not so much category, but not having a say in the whole thing I just wish once it was a done deal they could have told us the truth about what it was to cost. I don’t for a minute believe that the people who devised the Olympic costs actually believed the numbers they put forth.

Trivia - A cockroach can live several weeks with it's head cut off  -  It dies from starvation.

CALIFORNIA IN FINANCIAL DISTRESS

Lawmakers in California are unable to pass a budget and keep the Government operational. Governor Schwarzenegger will start the laying off of government employees immediately. This will be an interesting problem for us to watch and possibly get a lesson in mismanagement from. One wonders if this is another case of the Emperors fiddling while Rome burns.

Trivia - The law states that more than 3000 sheep cannot be herded down Hollywood Blvd at any one time.

THE ECONOMY DOOMSAYERS ARE THE BIGGEST PROBLEM

The recession has caused a lot of pain to a lot of people, in fact pretty much everyone in my part of the world. The headline news focuses mainly on the banking sector which is and will be the sector most watched to lead us out of this downturn. The banks with their greed and vile ways got the world into this mess and will be vilified for years to come for it. If the banks are looking for  sympathy for their predicament they can find it in the dictionary between shit and syphilis. 

The greed of these bankers may have got us into this mess and the governments unwillingness to let them fail will mean that they will have to be relied on to lead us out of it. They don’t deserve the honor. 

The fact is that some CEO’s learned their lessons well, during the last recession, and have managed their finances well and are prospering in these hard times. Unfortunately even as good as their balance sheets are and as good as their company prospects are they couldn’t get financing to expand and create more employment because the banks in their infinite wisdom would not lend to them anyway.

Protectionism will not be the problem prognosticators are expecting it to be. Companies are so globally based that they have manufacturing plants and parts suppliers all over the world making it impossible for protectionism to take hold.

Credit card debt has not gotten out of control the same way that mortgage debt has and is not likely to, given the bank and credit card companies tighter requirements.

The US dollar as diluted as it is, is still the default currency of the world and is still the strongest because other world economies are in dire straits as well. 

India will be the bright spot in all this going forward because they are starting at such a low base that their GDP will still be up by 5 to 6 % simply because of their poverty stricken poor people being able to now afford to buy simple staples such as food and soap.

On the other hand, China has become reliant on world trade for their rise to their present level of prosperity and with the downturn in world economies China’s export based economy has begun to suffer as well. China’s growth rate will drop from 11-12% to, I would expect 3-4% before starting to grow again, which is still growth even if it is slower.

President Obama and his henchmen and allies are talking such disastrous economics in order to get their stimulus package into law. It’s true there are problems and we are in a recession, but we have been here before and it has to run it’s course to allow the economy to grow again. The stimulus will probably get the economy moving again but the way I see it, it will have to be reined in very quickly once the economy is on solid ground or the problems down the road will make today’s problems look like a walk in the park.

Trivia - In Providence, Rhode Island, it is against the law to jump off a bridge.

B.C. BUDGET DEFICIT AND THE OLYMPIC COSTS

Even after offloading the Olympic costs to other levels of government the Provincial government is having to spend millions if not billions on Olympic costs. The problem being that they will not admit to most of the spending being Olympic costs. I fail to understand why they refuse to tell the truth about the true overall costs of the games. It’s not as if there is any viable alternative to them in government making them sure to re-elected in May.

The fact is that projects such as the sea to sky highway improvement project would not have been done if the Olympics were not coming. Meanwhile other badly needed projects throughout the province had to be put on hold or cancelled to put resources to Olympic priority projects. Olympic organizers and government officials chose to ignore the people warning of the inevitable cost overruns and forge ahead, I believe knowing full well they would be over budget. When putting a cost for security of $175,000,000 without any consultation with the RCMP is a ridiculous way to do business. Now they are hoping to provide the required security for one billion, that’s not much over just a whole bunch more zero’s.

Not that I have any interest in going to the games anyway but the tickets have been priced out of ordinary working people’s ability to pay. Even events being held now, a year before the games, at venues paid for by taxpayers they are not allowing the public to attend. So much for all this expense being for the benefit of all citizens. 

Meanwhile Gordon Campbell has repealed the law against running deficits so they can borrow enough to pay for it all. 

The homeless are still homeless and I’m curious as to where and how the government plans to hide them from the world.

The drug lords are still doing business freely and openly on every downtown street corner. 

The gangs are still having their gang wars with daily shootouts in mall parking lots and street corners, putting the general public at some considerable risk. I’m sure these gangs have all registered their weapons just like the rest of us have been forced to do.

Hiding all this from the world for two weeks, a year from now will be very expensive but of course will not be considered an Olympic expense, if it can even be done at all.

Trivia - In Washington state, you can’t carry a concealed weapon that is over 6’ in length.

A CASE FOR OIL INVESTMENT

This ongoing recession has caused a decrease in the demand and therefore a crash in the price of oil. With the drop in price, oil companies have curtailed exploration and production of oil which will cause a corresponding spike down the road. While continuing to draw down known reserves without replacing them is foolhardy.

This downturn has quietly masked the arrival of peak oil, without replacing reserves the world will no longer be able to keep up with consumption. Peak oil being the point at which 50% of global oil has been used. With world populations growing and industrializing, the oil we have left will get used a lot faster than the first half did.

As the economy starts to recover and even a modest increase in demand for oil ensues the price of oil will increase as fast as it dropped. The lack of exploration will mean there will be no way to simply turn on a valve and increase production. Cheap oil is and was a thing of the past going into this recession. Future oil production is going to get more expensive and this present temporary drop in demand and consequent drop in exploration will only make the price more volatile going forward. 

I don’t relate to the doomsday theorists that predict anarchy and chaos as the oil depletes. The warnings are out there and civilization is and will continue to pursue alternative solutions such as wind and solar. As the scarcity of oil drives the price up it will drive even more investment into new and innovative forms of energy. Even with millions of dollars being invested in alternatives we will be dependant on oil for years to come.

It looks to me like big oil companies are so acutely aware of the difficulty in finding more large pools of oil that they are entertaining the invitation to go back to a jurisdiction like Venezuela after being evicted from there only two years ago.

Now, while the oil price is depressed, seems to me to be a prudent time to make investments in oil companies with large oil reserves and clean balance sheets. If the world economy sinks further it may delay the whole process but I can’t see how it can stop it. 

This is of course just my view, for what it’s worth.

Trivia - A car uses 1.6 ounces of gas idling for one minute. Half an ounce is used to start the average automobile.

ZIMBABWE HUMANITARIAN DISASTER IN THE MAKING

Zimbabwe has more than 60,000 cases of Cholera reported to date, health care workers are not reporting for work because they are not getting paid, thereby exacerbating the situating. The country’s financial and social system is in a state of collapse with inflation spiraling out of control, making their money worthless. The UN’s appeal for $567 million in humanitarian aid has received little response.

The best the World Health Organization can do is to set up some medical clinics in border areas to try and limit the spread of Cholera to other African countries.

The political situation in Zimbabwe is intolerable, President Mugabe has control of the army and steals whatever aid makes it into that country. Inflation has turned to Hyperinflation bringing the financial system to a complete standstill.

As far as I can understand in this situation there is little that the world communities can do but monitor the happenings and wait until the political situation stabilizes to help these poor souls.

trivia - About 3000 years ago, most Egyptians died by the age of 30.

SEC - CORRUPT OR JUST INCOMPETENT?

The Securities Exchange Commission, set up to protect investors from unscrupulous crooks and con artists oversaw the implementation of the largest ponzi scheme the world has so far ever seen. In my view the SEC having been informed of the fraud and ignoring the allegations for more than a decade must be itself corrupt or at the very least criminally incompetent.

http://beltwayblips.dailyradar.com/video/rep_ackerman_on_madoff_fraud/#links

It seems to me that a fraud of this magnitude to be perpetrated by one man able to carry it on for decades is not possible without help from regulators at the very least turning a blind eye to the allegations registered against him.

If it were not for this ponzi scheme doing what all ponzi schemes have to eventually do, run out  of more victims and implode, it would still not have been discovered. It took Madoff himself coming forward and confessing to it for the fraud to finally come to light.

The SEC is of course scandalized and embarrassed by this. The credibility of this organization is now totally trashed and they will have to put most of their resources into trying to rebuild their credibility. Making weak excuses why it didn’t investigate and how it’s not their fault will not be helpful in rebuilding their credibility.  

Trivia - In Virginia, the Code of 1930 has a statute which prohibits corrupt practices or bribery by any person other than political candidates.

HYPERINFLATION AND THE STIMULUS PACKAGE

The massive stimulus packages put forward by governments around the world requires the printing of trillions of dollars. If and when the governments are successful in getting a fraction of this money into the hands of the working masses of the world it will surely cause a round if inflation like we have never seen before. With so much money being pumped into the economy, and human nature what it is, there will be billions of dollars siphoned off by companies and individuals in positions of power. When what’s left finally trickles down to those to whom it was originally intended, the cost of the end projects will be horrendous. 

The trillions of dollars now being printed and pumped into the economy will surely devalue the greenback as there is nothing to base the paper money on. The devaluing of the dollar will cause prices of all consumer goods to increase. As prices go up more money will have to be printed and the value of the dollar will decrease accordingly. As the value of the dollar decreases the price of materials quoted in U.S. dollars will spike up again. Inflation will no longer be controllable and hyperinflation will surely occur. A vision of needing a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread is not at all comforting. 

China, one of the main purchasers of American debt has already shown a reluctance to keep buying more of it, having domestic problems to deal with as it is. World economies are not in a position to buy American debt in the proportion required to finance the stimulus. Those with some extra money are opting to purchase gold as a hedge against impending financial disaster.

With little demand for their debt American Leaders will have no other option but to increase interest rates to try and attract buyers. As inflation rises from moderate inflation to hyperinflation and the cost of money rises right along with it, we will all end up in a whole world of hurt.

President Obama is engaging in very dangerous economic policy and if his timing is off just a little bit it will be disastrous. If he manages to pull it off he will be a hero but he has to know it’s a huge gamble. The way I see it, even if he manages to engineer a soft landing, the American taxpaying public will be generations trying to pay off the accumulated debt brought on by this massive stimulus package.

Trivia - California law prohibits a woman from driving a car while dressed in a housecoat.

SCENES WE'VE SEEN

I'll share  some of our Switzerlsnd pictures today. It is such a beautiful country we Enjoy revisiting through the pictures we've taken. We were there in springtime.

GOLD - INVESTMENT OR INSURANCE?

Gold has been bought as an inflation hedge for years. As such it hasn’t worked well because of the U.S. Government’s ability to manipulate the price and make billions of dollars in the process.

 Until 1933 U.S. citizens were required to sell their gold to the gov’t at $20.00 per ounce, at which time, since the government now owned all the gold, President F. D. Roosevelt raised the price to $35.00 per ounce thereby allowing the gov’t to print more money since it was at that time a gold backed currency and they had just ripped the gold owning citizens off by 65%.

In 1971 President Nixon abandoned the Gold standard and allowed the price of gold to float with the world demand and opened it up to Americans to own gold again. Thereby allowing the government to print any amount of paper dollars they wanted because there was nothing needed to back the currency. Opening it up for U.S. citizens to again own gold, which the government sold back to them at free market price, was one of the factors that drove the price up. By 1980 it reached a price of $850.00 which in todays dollars would be over $2100.00

Since then the world governments have been effective at manipulating and controlling the price of Gold by buying and selling as they chose. Even though inflation rose by double digits in the 80’s the price dropped to $350.00. It did not work out well as a hedge against inflation.

Fast forward to today and you have the U.S. Government printing paper money as fast as the printing presses can print with nothing to back it up. With other world economies in trouble as well, it is keeping the greenback strong for the time being.

The price of Gold is now starting to creep up due to world demand. China has started to be a purchaser of gold, no longer confident in owning U.S. Dollars, it has allowed it’s citizens to now own gold, and has started a Gold ETF, thereby affording it’s citizens the ability to own small amounts of the metal.

With governments around the world In a financial bind the American dollar is remaining the strongest currency in the world and the go to safety currency. The question now is can it retain it’s strength in the face of the massive stimulus spending they are now proposing. If it does it will keep a ceiling on the price of gold.

As the world economies start to recover and confidence comes back to lesser currencies, people will start dumping their U.S. dollars. As the dollar weakens, the theory goes, there will be upward pressure on the gold price.

If the U.S. led recovery program does not go exactly as planned, all bets are off, governments worldwide will no longer be able to manipulate the price of gold and it will have the potential to spike to prices not even dreamed of in past.

So as an investment gold has not worked out well in the past.

As a speculation, if your timing is spot on, there has been an opportunity to make some money.

As insurance against a pending financial disaster, in my opinion, it is a very wise choice.

Trivia - It’s against the law to pawn your dentures in Las Vegas

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AND PRESIDENT OBAMA

President Obama has just moved up a notch in my opinion. Reducing executive compensation on companies that have received taxpayer funded bailouts was the right thing to do. The gall of these executives to vote themselves huge compensation packages while the taxpayers, some of them in dire straights themselves, are paying the bills, is incomprehensible. That these executives would even consider taking such compensation packages shows how out of touch with reality they really are.

Rewarding incompetent management for running a company into the ground should not entitle them to any kind of a pay package, at least the way I see it.

A salary of $500,000.00 per year should be enough for these people to scrape by on during these tough times. They may of course have to give up one or two of their weekend jaunts to Paris or London but so be it.

Trivia - Tipping at a restaurant in Iceland is considered an insult!

B.C. BUDGET DEFICIT

B.C. will have a Budget Deficit  this year and next at least. How fast he can turn around and recall parliament and repeal the balanced budget law of 2002 that was passed with much fanfare. 

We are stuck with billions of dollars of expense to host the Olympics, we won’t even know how much until the Olympics are finished. I expect the government will never admit to most of it being other than a normal run of the mill infrastructure cost. I don’t yet know how they will disguise the cost of Games Security but I expect they will come up with some story. Being upfront with the public in the first place would have been more palatable, at least in my view.

The Liberal government doesn’t have to concern themselves with not getting re-elected, simply because there is no viable alternative to them. 

The embarrassment of breaking his own budget law doesn’t seem to faze Mr. Campbell in the least. I expect his biggest regret is there will be a $9,000.00 holdback on his salary, unless he repeals that part of the legislation as well.

Trivia - It is illegal to wear spurs while walking through a hotel lobby in Phoenix, Arizona.

BANKERS BONUSES

Kudos to the Canadian bank CEO’s who are giving back their multi-million dollar bonuses for 2008 leaving them with only their million dollar plus base salary. This lends a lot of credibility to Canadian Banking executives who also are not looking for taxpayer funded bailouts.

Unlike their American counterparts who have made sure they received more compensation than they can responsibly spend in any given year. Although even the American executives are facing a cut in compensation packages, it still gives them more than enough to live comfortably. The taxpayers who are paying their bills are suffering some considerable hardship and are rightfully angry when they read about the people who got them into this mess still living so high off the hog. The fact that they have received billions in taxpayer funded bailout money puts them in a very bad light. 

GRASSHOPPER AND THE ANT - THE REAL STORY

I Can't help but pass this along!  -It sounds real to me!

Thomson report

by John Thomson - Story: 44677
Jan 29, 2009 / 5:00 am

I was going through some papers looking at some stuff I had kept from last year and found this story. I'm not sure where I had received this from but got a laugh and thought you would too. The story about the ant and the grasshopper... 

CLASSIC VERSION 

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his 
house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a 
fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the 
ant is warm and well fed. The shivering grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. 

THE END 

THE CANADIAN VERSION 

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his 
house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks he's a 
fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the 
ant is warm and well fed. So far, so good, eh? 

The shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others less 
fortunate, like him, are cold and starving. 

The CBC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering grasshopper, 
with cuts to a video of the ant in his comfortable warm home with a table 
laden with food. 

Canadians are stunned that in a country of such wealth, this poor 
grasshopper is allowed to suffer while others have plenty. 

The NDP, the CAW and the Coalition Against Poverty demonstrate in front of the ant's house. The CBC, interrupting an Inuit cultural festival special 
from Nunavut with breaking news, broadcasts them singing 'We Shall 
Overcome'. 

Jack Layton rants in an interview with Mike Duffy that the ant has gotten 
rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on 
the ant to make him pay his 'fair share'. 

In response to polls, the Conservative Government drafts the Economic Equity and Grasshopper Anti-Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of the summer. 

The ant's taxes are reassessed, and he is also fined for failing to hire 
grasshoppers as helpers. 

Without enough money to pay both the fine and his newly imposed 
retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government. 

The ant moves to the US, and starts a successful agribiz company. 

The CBC later shows the now fat grasshopper finishing up the last of the 
ant's food, though spring is still months away, while the government house 
he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around 
him because he hasn't bothered to maintain it. 

Inadequate government funding is blamed, Bob Rae is appointed to head a 
commission of enquiry that will cost $10,000,000. 

The grasshopper is soon dead of a drug overdose, the Toronto Star blames 
it on the obvious failure of government to address the root causes of despair arising from social inequity. 

The abandoned house is taken over by a gang of immigrant spiders, praised 
by the government for enriching Canada's multicultural diversity, who 
promptly set up a marijuana grow op and terrorize the community. 

THE END

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AND BAILOUTS

President Obama is apparently not happy about the fact that bailed out companies are still paying themselves billions of dollars in bonuses, nor should he be.

The audacity of company executives who feel that they are worthy of such bonuses for incompetent management is incomprehensible in my view. 

Top executives meeting in Davos, Switzerland, of all places, are admitting that compensation models of some firms will have to be completely overhauled. I believe that would be an understatement. 

It’s not as if these people are being compensated with the worthless stock of the companies they have run into the ground, no, they get paid in cash thanks to the taxpayer funded bailouts.

 

I would humbly suggest that if a bailout is provided it should be contingent on management getting no bonuses and a 50% cut in salary. That would give them some incentive to manage the company prudently and profitably, give the shareholders some incentive to hold on, save the taxpayer the cost of bailing them out and financing such insane compensation packages.

The taxpayers of the world, unable to pay their mortgage or rent, are rightfully feeling they are being crapped on and then having their noses rubbed in it by these holier than thou executives who are living high off the hog on taxpayer handouts.

OUR CRAZY WORLD

Japan - Fire crew left the stove on when they went on a fire call and burned the fire station down.

South Korea - A Bio company says you will soon be able to clone your dog for about $50,000. Down 50% from the current cost of $100,000.   I have no idea why anyone would do that in the first place.

Britain - After 34 years a British Doctor has admitted that a paper published in the British Medical Journal on Cello Scrotum, a painful ailment suffered by Cello players, was a Hoax. The Dr. and her husband have been dining out on the story ever since it was published. Thank you very much. The story was inspired by a report on another highly suspect condition called Guitar Nipple.  Go figure.

New Zealand - Two prisoners, handcuffed together, made a run for freedom outside a courthouse. Unfortunately for them they tried to run one on either side of a lamp standard and fell to the ground where the police apprehended them.

THE BENEFITS OF COFFEE

I’M happy to learn all the coffee I’ve been chided for drinking so much of is actually good for me. What a relief.

http://men.webmd.com/features/coffee-new-health-food

VENEZUELA CONFISCATES ANOTHER OIL RIG

Venezuela has confiscated another oil rig. This at the same time as they are courting big oil to help finance some needed infrastructure spending. The way I see it, it was probably not very wise of U.S. based Ensco to go there in the first place. Apparently PDVSA has used all it’s capital on other unrelated projects and with the drop in oil prices finds itself unable to pay the Drillers so they are simply confiscating the rigs.

Apparently the big investments in the oil infrastructure in that country by China, Iran and other favored countries didn’t pan out, otherwise they wouldn’t be quietly courting big oil companies again.

It should serve as a warning to big oil to stay away from Venezuela no matter how lucrative the investment proposal sounds.

BUDGET- MY VIEW

Three cups of coffee and mulling over the new budget and I can’t see where the document benefits me or mine at all.

I don’t think I’ll be selling investments that are underwater by 50% to do Home improvements to take advantage of the announced tax credit. Which I probably won’t need anyway as my income drops during this recession.

When they said infrastructure I would have thought they meant Highways, Bridges, Hospitals, Deep Sea Ports and that sort of infrastructure. Recreation Centres, Museums, Theatres and the like, although nice to have, don’t qualify in my mind as fiscally prudent infrastructure to spend money on at this time.

Infrastructure spending is good as long it is put into badly needed projects that will be beneficial to the general well being of the entire population not just blatant vote buying jurisdictions.

Tax cuts do most benefit as the money would be spent locally not filtered through governments sticky hands.

There seems to be a lot of spending on things that have nothing to do with most Canadians. Bailouts benefit the highest voting jurisdictions not the most needed jurisdictions. 

I can see we are mortgaging our Children & Grandchildrens futures in this most Unconservative Budget.

CITIBANK UPDATE ( No Airplane )

Citibank executives caved in to pressure from the White House and decided it would not be a best use of funds to take delivery of their new Corporate Jet at this time. Go Figure.

CITIBANK’S TIMELY BAILOUT ( How to buy a new Jet )

It’s a good thing the good taxpayers of America gave Citibank a $300 billion dollar bailout or they would have had trouble adding the new corporate jet to their fleet of planes. The new $50 million dollar jet came from France, thereby not inconveniencing out of work airplane manufacturers in America. They would have had to cut back on executive bonuses to help cover the cost.

Oh apparently they are cutting bonuses back to a mere $26 million, that should help.

There was obviously no conditions attached to the bailout money for the Bank executives to decide this was a good use of taxpayers money.

Do the people at the top not realize there is a recession happening and their bank is in trouble?

How many houses could have been spared from foreclosure if they had lent those millions out, instead of buying toys and overpaying incompetent executives?

CRTC AND THE DO NOT CALL LIST

The CRTC initiated Do Not Call list is being sold to telemarketers online. This is another example of our inept beaurocracy making fools of themselves. The anger of people who put their names on this list only to start getting more calls instead of less is justified indeed. The telemarketers are having a field day with this. They simply buy a list over the internet and they have all the valid phone numbers they will ever need, including people’s cell phones that they have to pay for incoming calls on.

Another case of our tax dollars being misused.

Now how much will it cost us to fix it? 

FINALLY A TAX CUT

It’s hard to believe the government is about to give us a tax cut. I’ll take it happily, however I am a little skeptical as this government has had a history of lying to us about such things. I expect if we actually get the announced cut  they will think of other things to tax us on as well as take away existing tax deductions.  They haven't been in power long enough to fully develop the greed and corruption that years in power bring out in politicians of every stripe.This is the nature of Politicians in general. The Conservatives are the best of a bad lot, so we have no choice but to be supportive of them.

Liberals have proven over the years to be far too corrupt and arrogant to deserve even a hint of a chance of regaining power.

The NDP has a philosophy that is not in line with the philosophy of most Canadians and so cannot and should not be given more of an influence on power than they duly represent.

THIS IS UPLIFTING

There is a two-letter word in English that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that word is 'UP.'  It is listed in the dictionary as being used as an [adv], [prep], [adj], [n] or [v]. It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?  A t a meeting, why does a topic come UP ? Why do we speak UP, and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report? We call UP our friends and we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP  the kitchen. We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.  At other times the little word has a real special meaning. People stir UP  trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.  To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special. And this up is confusing:  A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped  UP. We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.   We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP !  To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP , look the word UP in the dictionary. In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes  UP almost 1/4 of the page and can add  UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.  When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP . When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP. When it rains, it wets UP the earth. When it does not rain for awhile, things dry UP.  One could go on & on, but I'll wrap it UP , for now  ........my time is UP , so time to shut UP!  Oh...one more thing:  What is the first thing you do in the morning & the last thing you do at night?  U    P  Don't screw up. Send this on to everyone you look up in your address book.       Now I'll shut up